Earth in the Ariducene

The Ariducene is the epoch after the calidocene. It starts in 15 million A.D. and ends in 25 million A.D. 

The Ariducene, as the name suggests, is characterized by its arid climate. This arid climate was caused by a multitude of factors that broke the fragile balance of the Calidocene. The Calidocene was already winding down and the earth was gradually cooling, but tectonic activity prevented the earth from going into another ice age and instead into an age of deserts.

 The slow inching of Antarctica towards South America has slowed down the Antarctic circumpolar current, causing a chain reaction in ocean currents. Due to most currents relying on the Antarctic circumpolar current, most reroute or slow down, leading to many different areas getting low rainfall. The low rainfall led to droughts plaguing the world. Erosion turned the dry soil into a sandy substrate and the lush paradises turned to deserts.

The changes in oceanic currents has caused the stormraft fleet ecosystem to collapse and it's lost its cohesion. The rafts drift apart from each other are broken apart by the currents. Unlike the fate of the stormraft fleets, the Siberian glowcaves are growing and many lifeforms have migrated into the caves in search of refuge from the heat of the desert.

Tectonic activity has caused most of the old world to merge together. Africa pushes north into europe and closes the strait of Gibraltar. Sicily, now connected to the Italian mainland, has also merged with Africa. This new connection of Africa with Europe has closed off the western mediterranean a tranformed it into a giant salt flat. Similarly, the Caspian Sea, Adriatic Sea, and Black Sea has also dried up and become salt flats. Not only have salt lakes and seas dried up, but freshwater bodies have as well, the Mississippi floodplain, much of Europe, East Asia, and the great lakes have dried up. 

The Indian Ocean has also changed significantly. The Adzanian isles have merged together as one landmass and connected with Madagascar. India pushes further north, expanding the Himalayan and Hindu-Kush mountain ranges. Australia has moved north and merged with the Indonesian archipelago, Borneo, and the Philippines and formed the continent of Irwinia.

North America has moved slightly west. It hasn't fully merged with Asia due to the sea levels and tectonic direction, the gap is still fairly narrow though. North America has fully seperated from south America as the sunken isthmus of Panama split apart.